Midland Poker Robbers Jailed

Monday, 14 January 2013

As Theo Jorgensen can attest, being a professional poker can be a risky business. Thankfully a recent case of a burglary at the home of a poker pro in Tamworth didn't end in quite such brutal fashion but it did end in two men being given prison sentences.

Tom Carpenter, who won a side event at EPT Prague in 2010, was preparing for a trip to Vegas in June 2011 when three masked men entered his home. The gang, one of whom was wielding a machete, made off with an envelope containing £7,000 as well as the English pro's wallet.

According to the Tamworth Herald, police found the fingerprints of David Burns and Andrew Craig on a pair of plastic bags discarded at the scene.

The pair each admitted a charge of burglary. Burns was jailed for 42 months and Craig for 32 months.

"Neither accepts being physically in the property when it was burgled and were not aware that weapons were to be used," said Mr Patrick Sullivan, prosecuting.

It's thought that Carpenter was targeted after being overheard giving his address while changing $5,000 from a Tamworth bureau de change.

"This was a highly planned and professional burglary,” said Judge Michael Chambers QC. “It must have been an extremely frightening experience."

Tuesday is the deadline for all working Americans to have submitted their income tax returns to the federal government and Juicy Stakes and Intertops Poker are set to mark this annual occasion by holding a special freeroll competition featuring a $1,000 top prize.

“We run a lot of higher stakes tournaments for our more hard-core players,” said Intertops’ poker manager. “But since our network is generally pretty soft, we created this series to give less competitive players a shot at winning.”